This week: The Good Old Summertime Edited by: Legerdemain  
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The Good Old Summertime
What did you do in summer as a child? I remember endless bike rides, swimming in Lake Michigan, camping, fishing and sometimes just sitting in the shade trying to stay cool. I drank from the hose, never wore shoes let alone a helmet when I rode my bike and got my fair share of scrapes and bruises.
I also remember playing softball, wiffle ball, kickball and chasing fireflies in the fading sunlight, just before the streetlights came on and I had to be home. And I HAD to be home, we had a streetlamp right by our yard, so there was NO excuse for lateness.
The simple adventures of a child are some great memories, and can be an excellent foundation for your younger characters, or flashbacks of older ones. Where your bravery was rewarded by the admiration of your cohorts. Never mind that your mother would have had a heart attack had she known what you were up to. Of course, I remember sometimes my mother was the instigator of many water balloon fights and summer pranks.
Disagreements were argued out and forgotten, there was no social media, no texting, no videos, you just called a friend or went to their house to ask them to play. If they didn't want to come out, there were no hard feelings, you just went on to the next friend's house. Or you went out in the street and kicked a tin can around until someone came out to play. There was always some kind of game to play or make up. Sometimes it took longer to sort out the rules and where the bases were, than to play the game. In all, childhood memories can be simple and wonderful...and sometimes very adventurous.
Be adventurous, and Write On!
This month's question: What are some of your fondest childhood memories?
Did you use them in your writing?
Answer below  Editors love feedback! 
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Excerpt: Neon apparatuses hung everywhere. On the far side of the room, a stack of mattress-like mats were piled against the wall. “This. Is. Going. To. Be. EPIC,” Sammy breathed, as she took it all in. There were hoops, silk fabric, trapezes, and ropes. Sammy’s mom looked around as well. “Is this even safe?” She frowned, pulling away her excited daughter. “Maybe circus camp was a bad idea...”
Excerpt: We would walk everywhere because Nanny didn't have a car, but that was ok. It was beautiful in Decatur in the summertime. There was also a train track down the street and a Dairy Queen on the other side of the tracks. There was nothing better that a Dairy Queen Chocolate Malt on a hot summer day.
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Excerpt: If we had been given the foreknowledge that this would be our last summer together, none of us boys would have changed a single day. Looking back to that time, I'm grateful our folks had the wisdom not to share the news with us until the first week of August...otherwise, it would have cast a pall over our final weeks together, causing us to be morose and unnatural with each other...
Excerpt: “I’m tellin’ you, Mom’s gonna have your hide on the wall when she finds out.” She tapped her right foot on the dirt path in irritation. Puffs of summer-dry dust puffed around her ankles with each smack of her little bare toes. She crossed her arms over her skinny chest in mimic of her mother’s posture when she was about to discipline them. Jonathan rolled his eyes and shot a prayer heavenward.
Excerpt: Finally, summer vacation had arrived! Johnny couldn’t wait for his days at Grammy and PopPop’s farm! Such adventures awaited, with horses boarding in the fields, fun to pet, water, feed, and talk to…adventures in the apple orchard, quests yet to be imagined. Summer would bring playful hikes to a small reservoir accompanied by the watchful overseers, two black labs. Of course, there was always the basement too, with countless dusty treasures and the large freezer with orange sherbet and frozen chocolate pies that Grammy shared generously! While not all corners of this compelling acreage felt welcoming to the eight-year-old boy, plenty did. Yet there had been a new arrival in recent months: Great-Grandmother Moore.
Excerpt: About twenty minutes north of Cedar City, Utah on Highway 91, the Eastman Bros. Circus caravan came to a halt because of the hazy form of a horse in the middle of the road, shimmering in the heat. Larry Eastman—Pops to most of us younger ones—had slammed on the brakes of his pick-up truck, causing Carl’s head to slam into the dashboard in a rude awakening. Pops said he dismissed the image as a mirage and, perhaps, symptoms of his insomnia. As he lifted his foot off the brake, however, the fogged horse—pale, he said, pale with a dark soul—shrank to the shape of a large dog, then thinned and stretched up onto two legs before refining itself into the form of a buxom woman. Carl, Pops’ twin sister, later confirmed his story.
Excerpt: The sun kisses my face as it peeks through the lace curtains. Without opening my eyes I know exactly where I am. Each summer my two brothers and I spend the summer with Grandma at her beach house on Cape Cod. As I lay in my warm bed, I feel the faded cotton quilt gently hugging my small frame. Excitedly, I think about how much fun we’ll have at Grandma’s house this summer. I can’t wait to go to the beach today.
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This month's question: What are some of your fondest childhood memories?
Did you use them in your writing?
Answer below Editors love feedback!
Last month's question: Give us your brainstorming tips!
shepherd46: Brainstorming tips:
Tip #1: What are my priorities?
Tip #2: Stay cool, calm and relaxed!
Tip #3: Decide what your main goal is--for writing, projects or other
Tip #4: Get going!
Alexi  : Pick a word from the dictionary Give yourself five minutes or so and just write what comes into your head. Do this a few times and then cluster what you have written.
Next form something from what you find and write.
I have had success from this and good and creative ideas. This sparks what you will write.
Mari McKee  : If you write about things for which you have passion, creativity will naturally
jdennis  :
I open with two dialogue strings, usually a question and the answer. Then I ask myself, "what comes next?" I can always change everything if it ends up sounding stupid.
Dee C : Remember someone you should have loved.
black magic woman : grab a pen and paper, write every single thing that comes to mind. be it story ideas, character traits, pieces of dialogue, specific scenes or settings, don't stop writing until your mind shuts off. take a step back to admire your work, that's your brain and all it's creativity sprawled out on a pieces of paper. do what you will with it.
Anna Marie Carlson  : This sounds very strange, but when I came into contact with a spider when I was doing dishes, it prevented me from trying to do any more. I decided that I was not going to let this spider take over, so I decided to talk to it for a while and then sing it a song. I left for a while, came back, and found it gone. This was an accomplishment! |
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Action/Adventure: July 03, 2019 Issue [#9638]
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